Intercity; Regional Express; Commuter; Metro.
Interesting that they're being split very European-style. Perhaps a clue to how trains will be classified in the future beyond the TOC continuity branding on present GBR services.
Hello r/uktrains.
Simple question really - which station local or local-ish to you would you like to see reopened (or opened if it has never existed) and why?
I'll start - for me, the latter, open a new station just prior to Hunsbury Hill Tunnel when coming into Northampton to serve the south of the town. For a town with a population estimated to be over 250,000 I think it's bonkers it has just the one station. The single station gets super overcrowded when the London train arrives and is not easy to get to for those living in the southern suburbs (a place where a lot of London-bound or MK-bound commuters live). I feel a station at Hunsbury could be really warranted - especially if relatively tiny Rugby gets its Parkway station. Have put the proposed location on a mock-up map.
But what station in your area needs a reopening or a grand opening?
Responding to feedback of my proposed Great British Railways (GBR) categories post that I uploaded to this sub a couple of months ago and in light of recent information on how GBR could be categorised, I have revised my categories for GBR.
This new idea now consists of a simpler 14 categories rather than the 21 sub-divisions I proposed in my last post. Moreover, these can be split down into just 5 primary categories instead of the previous 12 divisions.
One piece of feedback was that the Express and Connect split for each region could result in an incorrect conflation between the fast commuter services in and around London and the South East with the more long-distance ‘InterCity’ type services towards northern England and Scotland and western England and Wales.
Other feedback questioned renaming Thameslink to CapitalLink.
Moreover, it was noted that regionalising Express services ignored the nature of these services being cross-regional and that most stations would only have 1 region of Express trains anyway.
Therefore, I hope the new categories provide a clearer and more logical way of dividing the new nationalised operator so that GBR works for all.
Again – this is not sectorisation but more a means of making it easier for passengers (especially those not familiar with the network) to understand which train goes where, which services it provides and how fast it goes. It can help passengers continue to navigate the network effectively.
As always, please feel free to post your thoughts – thinks you like, things that could be improved, things that have been missed etc.
The categories are as follows:
| Category: | Description: |
|---|---|
| Arrow | Great Britain’s premium high-speed rail service. Running long-distance on dedicated high-speed lines with First Class and catering provided. Due in the 2030s on HS2 line initially. |
| Javelin | Budget high-speed service without First Class or catering. Running medium-distance on dedicated high-speed lines. Present service on HS1 line potential to run services on HS2 line from the 2030s. |
| Express | The core of Great Britain’s railway network. Long-distance and medium-distance services on conventional lines with First Class and catering provided. Classed as ‘InterCity’ during the era of British Rail. Core lines and routes include ECML; GWML; WCML; long-distance cross-country and long-distance trans-Pennine. |
| Regions | Inter-regional, commuter and non-devolved local services on conventional lines. 10 regions listed. |
| Flyers | Regular frequency city centre to airport services. 5 London airports listed but could include more. |